Case Studies

BACKGROUND: A Jergens customer whose products include a family of parts machined from 1” square stock.

ISSUE:

Cycle time (including loading & unloading) was 5 to 8 minutes, depending upon part number.

Changeover time for each machining center was 1 to 1-1/2 hours.

SOLUTION:

The fixtures were built using the Jergens Ball Lock™ Mounting System, which allows fixtures to be removed and replaced by loosening 4 set screws, removing 4 shanks, swapping fixtures, replacing the shanks, and tightening the set screws. The entire process takes about a minute. No indicating or registering is required. The Jergens Ball Lock™ system will repeat the location of the fixture, within .0005” every time. The fixture location will repeat on the same machine and on every machine with the same Jergens Ball Lock™ location pattern. This allows the same fixtures to be used on different machines performing different operations.

Cycle times were reduced by replacing the vises with dedicated fixtures that hold up to six parts. Machining six parts per load eliminated more than 50% of the previous load/unload time.

Cycle time has been reduced to 3 to 4 minutes.

Changeover time is now 1 to 5 minutes.

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Reduction of downtime, with extreme accuracy and no need to indicate or register is a hallmark of the Ball Lock Mounting System.